Well its not for nothing. The half a trillion-dollar
budget funds a lot. First off it pays a pittance to more than a million people
(some more than others) who are fighting under the auspices of defending our country. It also feeds the beast that is the military-industrial complex.
Ike warned us about it nearly 45 years ago and yet it continues to rape our country of money that can be used to strengthen our nation from the inside out.
Setting aside the fact that many soldiers can hardly feed their families, a systemic problem that has created an external mercenary force in Iraq and other places so that soldiers can make multiple times the amount of a regular Jarhead. You can also set aside the uncounted deaths of these combatants.
What I want to focus is on how the ever inventive and formerly reliable M-I complex screws up and leaves soldiers dead because of it.
Recently the former Serbian commander that was responsible for shooting down a F-117 in March of 1999 talked about his successful shoot-down of one of our planes, our multi-million dollar planes. Stealth technology was kept as one of our country's best secrets, yet the reason it was shot down was because of the manufacturer of the Nighthawk not thinking things through.
Basically Serbian technology was out-dated by about forty years. The radar systems were quite antiquated. You would think Lockheed would know that we might fly planes where the technology does not compare to the United States. Apparently not. So the SA-3 hit the plane using electromagnetic waves, according to the commander.
The editor of Jane's Defense Weekly backed him up:
"We know he is telling the truth. ... The F-117 was designed to be stealthy against modern radars. Against old long pulse duration radars, its not stealthy," said O'Halloran. "People in the West do not like to say that."
This is not an isolated incident. A F-16 was also shot down by a SA-3 and airplanes were ordered to fly above 15,000 feet during the conflict to avoid being shot down.
Currently the Bush Administration is being beaten back about going above and beyond the wastefulness of the F-117 Nighthawk. If there is one good thing about the Administration being in full crisis mode (obviously there are too many to count, hehe) it is that his handouts to the monster that is the M-I complex is being hindered.
This of course is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the omnipotent system that drains away dollars from much more needed programs, like um, health care and education to name two. Nevertheless its a good start.